Colorado orchards say they try to hire locals, but find them difficult to attract to hard work

Some Americans complain that foreign workers take American jobs, but when Colorado orchards try to hire local workers they have a hard time finding enough local applicants. Over 300 local job-seekers inquired at Talbott Farms' orchard and vineyard this year, but the vast majority of the employed workers are in Colorado on H-2A guest-worker visas from Mexico. "It is not that Talbott and other growers don't want to hire fellow Americans hurting from extended unemployment," Nancy Lofholm of The Denver Post reports. "But many of those job-seekers aren't willing to tackle the tough, low-wage, long-hour farm labor." (Post photo by RJ Sangosti: Brandon Lock of Grand Junction prunes fruit trees at Talbott Orchards in Palisade.)

Local workers "miss a lot of work. They come when they want to come. They get bored," Mario Moreno, a crew leader for Talbott, told Lofholm. Before employers can hire H-2A workers they are required to "exhaust all attempts to hire Americans," Lofholm reports. John Harold of Tuxedo Corn in Olathe told Lofholm he got few local applicants this year after word circulated that his work days begin at 6 a.m. Colorado farmers say the guest workers are willing to work the long hours and will stay until after the harvest, a requirement of the visa. Many guest workers return to the same farms year after year.

"During boom times, locals often don't bother to look to the orchards and farm fields for jobs," Lofholm writes. "But when construction and energy-drilling jobs went away, the unemployed began to consider unskilled farm work that generally pays about $8 an hour." A requirement that employers anticipate the shortage of local workers and apply for H-2A workers at least 45 days before the workers are needed is just one of the complications of the guest-worker program. 

While the bulk of work is still done by guest workers, the combination of more available domestic workers and H-2A rules has resulted in a decline in requests for the guest workers in Colorado. In 2008, growers put in 153 applications for nearly 2,000 guest workers. This year, 96 growers have asked for 1,036 guest workers,  Lofholm reports. (Read more)